Mystacina tubecrulata, the New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat, is the only extant member of the family Mystacinidae. It is found only in New Zealand. It hunts both in the air and on the ground, and is adept at quadrupedal locomotion. Perhaps as a result, the hind limbs are more robust than in most other bats.

About the Species

This whole preserved specimen (AMNH 173919) was made available to the High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility for scanning by Dr. Nancy Simmons of the American Museum of Natural History. Funding for scanning was provided by a National Science Foundation grant (DEB-9873663) to Dr. Simmons, and funding for scanning and image processing was provided by a National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative grant to Dr. Timothy Rowe of The University of Texas at Austin.